Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would agree that lots of individual savings pots don't work for everyone.  We did it for a while but now just have two savings pots.  One emergency fund and one pot for everything else albeit in separate savings spaces in a starling account. We also only have three savings spaces, car, house, holiday. Champagne glasses tower is a good visual motivator. 

I like the idea of three separate big pots. We have a holiday pot already and will have a house pot when we have saved a bit more as the house can wait for the time being.

The champagne glasses seems to make sense to us. I was saving £100 a month towards an emergency fund and anything else I could chuck in it but the emergencies were coming too thick and fast.

crunchy_time

EssexHebridean said:

If the method works for you then that's the most important thing - however I'd urge caution on conflating "emergency fund" with stuff that is unquestionably not emergency spends. An EF should be sacred - ONLY touched for the sort of financial panics that simply can't be seen coming, if it is used for things that should be part of a budget like car servicing etc then it won't be there for the actual emergencies, and that's when the credit cards come out. The other risk is that it blurs the boundaries of what constitutes an actual emergency where the money there SHOULD be available to be used.

We do run with a fair few savings pots, but the transfers to them are automated (standing orders from the current account at the beginning of the month) so we don't have to worry about remembering to do transfers. I do have one regular saver at the moment where it's not possible to set a SO from the feeder account and that's bugging the life out of me as I forget it every month and have a bit of a panic account the balance after the current account level dips! Mental note for the future not to use that set-up again! 

I agree. At the moment we have separated spending money from what I guess is large expenses coming up that we haven’t managed to save for.

so we have boiler service, two car services and mots and need to pay for an Ed psych to assess out child for a learning differences so we just need to keep saving as much as we can to cover these costs without using credit cards if we can.

The other option we have is to put these expenses on credit cards until we save enough for a £1k pure emergency fund and a £1k car pot as running two 6-7 year old cars can get expensive. And then pay off what is on the credit cards so if anything comes up we are covered and not having to keep relying on credit cards.

Im trying to limit us to £200 spending money this month. This is separate from husband and my personal spending money, it’s more family and household spending money.

im going to see what the boiler service comes to tomorrow and make a plan.

I have pots for childcare, oil and other things that are variable throughout the year. I just need to nail the emergency/car fund.

Crunchy x

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I find most of my best ideas happen after a glass (or 2) of wine.  Pretty sure all five of my kids have wine to thank for their existence too.  I'm only half joking  

crunchy_time

ohdearhowdidthathappen said:

I find most of my best ideas happen after a glass (or 2) of wine.  Pretty sure all five of my kids have wine to thank for their existence too.  I'm only half joking  

😂

this made me laugh xx

crunchy_time

Boiler service was £107 and car service was about £235. All paid for using the Monzo pot and nothing on credit card!!

Car will need two new tyres before it’s MOT in January. My MOT is due at the end of November so they are the next things to put money aside for.  

So far we have spent £225 from our spending pot. A few birthday presents and hair cuts for the dog and kids so this feels ok at the moment. Will probably get a few drinks in the pub whilst out walking this weekend and then a trip out a half term before husband gets paid and the whole thing can start again.

we still haven’t put the heating on!! And our electric company have said our DD will be £125 based on our annual consumption which is better than I thought but I shall closely monitor the situation.

The sofa loan has come out and I am hoping the two credit card payment have come out too from husbands account. I shall check later.

oh and we are on track for food and fuel spending which is good!

So so far so good for October!

Crunchy x

pennywisepoundstupid

All sounding good crunchy xx

enthusiasticsaver

That all sounds very good.  The budgeting with Monzo sounds like it is helping.  We have savings pots with Starling too and usually I hate October as we have car insurance, service, and mot for my car and insurance for DHs. This year he needs 2 new tyres too and mine needs a new cambelt so having the money sat there is so much less stressful. The electric DD is very reasonable in this climate. 

EssexHebridean

enthusiasticsaver said:

That all sounds very good.  The budgeting with Monzo sounds like it is helping.  We have savings pots with Starling too and usually I hate October as we have car insurance, service, and mot for my car and insurance for DHs. This year he needs 2 new tyres too and mine needs a new cambelt so having the money sat there is so much less stressful. The electric DD is very reasonable in this climate. 

I honestly feel that having been using the savings pots idea for a few years now - and religiously ensuring that the money that is budgeted in those areas just goes to the pots each month without fail (I’ve automated it so it just goes the same as any other payment) - the stress relief at times like car insurance renewal is huge  (our “car” monthly amount covers the insurances and we just pay upfront now as a result so cheaper too). For things like service/MoT while there is still a slight “hope it’s not too expensive” element at the end of the day the money is there for anything bar something disastrous - and if that DID occur then the EF is there anyway. For us, having a car in good working order is absolutely vital - our commutes would be both longer and hugely more expensive without (think from max £150 a month diesel plus £100 tube for MrEH to around £600 train/bus/tube to get both of us to where we need to be each day) so the peace of mind aspect is massive too. 

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

That all sounds very good.  The budgeting with Monzo sounds like it is helping.  We have savings pots with Starling too and usually I hate October as we have car insurance, service, and mot for my car and insurance for DHs. This year he needs 2 new tyres too and mine needs a new cambelt so having the money sat there is so much less stressful. The electric DD is very reasonable in this climate. 

It is and it isn’t. We put a lot of our money  in savings pots on there in October but it all got a bit confusing making transfers.

so excited now just have three spending budgets - food, fuel and joint spending money and then I’m keeping my Christmas savings on there as well to be transferred as soon as I have made a shopping plan for Christmas.

This time of year is expensive for us too. 3 birthdays and two cats to service not to mention Christmas!!

crunchy_time

Ha ha two cats to service - clearly I meant cars!